George R.R. Martin Watches Reactions to the Red Wedding

“Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin appeared on “Conan” last night to discuss Sunday night’s epic Red Wedding episode in which a number of main characters were slaughtered, surprising and outraging some fans of the TV series.

“You get us to really care about characters, love them, think that they’re central to everything…and then you kill them, you sick bastard,” the host told Martin.

An amiable Martin explained that as a reader or viewer, he prefers the unexpected, and for the suspense to be real. ”I want my readers and I want my viewers to be afraid when my characters are in danger,” he said. “I want them to be afraid to turn the next page because the character may not survive it.”

Martin also described meeting three actors from the show recently. Despite the pleasant conversation, he realized with some guilt that they would all be dead. One of the actors knew, but the others didn’t realize yet. “They would know it if they’d read the books!” Martin said.